Overview
This is the first book to explore how to identify future-proof science. Peter Vickers takes a transdisciplinary approach in his analysis of 'scientific fact' in order to defend science against potentially dangerous scepticism.
Is science getting at the truth? The sceptics - those who spread doubt about science - often employ a simple argument: scientists were ''sure'' in the past, and then they ended up being wrong. Through a combination of historical investigation and philosophical-sociological analysis, Identifying Future-Proof Science defends science against this potentially dangerous scepticism. Indeed, we can confidently identify many scientific claims that are future-proof: they will last forever, so long as science continues. How do we identify future-proof claims? This appears to be a new question for science scholars, and not an unimportant one. Peter Vickers argues that the best way to identify future-proof science is to avoid any attempt to analyse the relevant first-order scientific evidence, instead focusing purely on second-order evidence. Specifically, a scientific claim is future-proof when the relevant scientific community is large, international, and diverse, and at least 95% of that community would describe the claim as a ''scientific fact''. In the entire history of science, no claim meeting these criteria has ever been overturned, despite enormous opportunity.
- | Author: Peter , Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Centre for Humanities Engaging Science and S
- | Publisher: Oxford University Press
- | Publication Date: Nov 30, 2022
- | Number of Pages:
- | Language:
- | Binding: Hardback
- | ISBN-13: 9780192862730
- | ISBN-10: 0192862731
